Why do I need A visual Identity?
In an increasingly competitive marketplace, a distinct visual identity is essential for brands to stand out and connect with their audience. A well-crafted visual identity communicates a brand’s values, personality, and promise at a glance, creating a lasting impression in the minds of consumers.
A visual idenitity fosters recognition and trust, helping the brand rise above the noise of competitors. By aligning visuals with the brand’s unique story, businesses can create emotional connections that inspire loyalty and drive engagement, making differentiation not just a strategy but a necessity in building a successful brand.
How do You create a visual Identity?
It all starts by identifying the brand personality (brand archetypes) and customer experience you want to provide and then aligning these two with your brand’s mission statement.
Do you want your brand to be casual, formal, playful, or professional?
Understanding this will help you maintain a consistent voice across your website, campaigns, and ads to build a recognisable and authentic brand presence.
What is the power of visual identity?
A good visual identity is important as it helps to create a captivating and consistent visual representation of a brand that consumers can easily recognise.
If your brand don’t have a cohesive and engaging visual identity that aligns with your brand’s personality, you’re going to get lost in the sea of competitors.
A solid visual identity across all marketing and products will differentiate a brand from its competitors and create trust and credibility with consumers.
How does a brand in the current era of social media avoid becoming repetitive?”
The answer is to see your brand through fresh eyes and to embrace your customers needs and to be true to yourself and your core values. Speak on your terms and have a conversation with your audience through the channels they use, about the current themes in the way that they understand and value. To create a common value which strengthens the bond to your brand.
So to be clear the key to good visual communication is to have an easily recognisable style that people can understand and identity with. It is the finger print your brand will leave on all its advertising, whether it appears online or in print.
The visual identity acts like an inverse prism, unifying and bringing all of the different ingredients together with a singular focus that can create a strong brand resonance in the market place.This is why visual identity is a key component of campaign and brand success.
Why is having a visual identity important for Social Media?
A brand community is made up of a group of people who share a common interest or affinity to a brand. Today you will find them on the internet, if not in a chat rooms or on social media. They gather to discuss issues that they feel is important to their group.
A good examples of brand communities are Nike and Apple, they have both built communities of fans around their brands over time, enabling their communication style to align with their brand values and audience preferences.
Both of these brands have always been strong advocates for brand visual communication and they have valued the consumer input to their brand. Which has made their storytelling surrounding their brands authentic and have a real resonance amongst their consumers.
This resonance or BRAND HALO helps to improve brand loyalty, receive valuable feedback, and generate word-of-mouth promotion.
Which ultimately strengthens a brand’s presence and the customer relationships because customers feel they have been heard and understood publicly. This is why any brand needs a cohesive visual identity on the web and thought the brand visual communication, so people know they are in the right place.
What is the difference between visual identity and brand identity?
Visual identity and brand identity are similar but not the same.
Visual identity has to do with the things people see when they interact with your brand.
Brand identity extends beyond visuals to cover everything that makes your brand come alive for example the tone of voice, story, values, persona, mission statement, value proposition, style guides, and more. Brand identity is a expression of who the brand is on the inside.
The visual identity of a brand is how they appear in the media or their presence in the market place, and their style. A good example of this is Tiffany’s the Jewellers.
This brand makes all their products clearly identifiable and have a clear visual impression. You know their advertising immediately and you can easily know who are trying to copy or emulate them.
Brand identity is the way the brand makes you feel, how they speak to their audience and their general attitude and the market presence.
If a company were an actor, you can tell instantly what the difference is in their personalities.
Say the difference between Joey and Ross on Friends. Both quirky, but both very different.
Having a well thought out and well put together visual identity leads to a strong brand presence which is the key to product differentiation and market place positioning.
No second Chance At A First Impression
Today strong brands are striving to be the flag pole that people willingly identify with, and gather under and associate with on social media.
Not just because the brands they associate with are renowned, but because people understand and identity with these brands and their values.
However, no brand can be everything to everybody. Its simply not possible.
To get around this the biggest and most successful brands try to be relevant to as many people as they can, this is why they strive to have a cohesive visual presence so they can be easily identified by consumers in what ever medium they appear.
the problem
How do you get someone to love a brand they don't know?
The strategy
The solution for Beach Queen was to create a brand that seemed familiar and aspirational. The whole idea of going to the beach for most Aussies is to recharge and to relax. To push aside the every day and to take on an alter ego where you can not have to be tied to every day tasks. The purpose of this brand is to create a sense of everyday freedom.
The Image
The visual impression for this project would be to create an international style, one where you couldn't tell if you were in Italy, California or Mexico. The image would be the same. The Beach Queen is a woman who travels the world to follow the sun and her dreams.
The Impression
The overall impression is one of a well traveled female who can move from beach to bar and is welcome everywhere because she is stylishly well dressed for any summer occasion.
The Value Of Being Unique
I chose a combination of Explorer, hero and lover brand personality for their brand that went with their spirit of adventure and fun that would sit well on the high street or in a surf shops who would be their channel partners.
The age group was wide so I made the brand look slightly iconic but fresh that left the door open to all women from any age who just love the beach and a healthy lifestyle.
From the Beach to the bar
Beach Queen is a small startup business from the South West of Sydney. As the business was developing the two partners could not decide on how they wanted the brand to look and so reached out to me to create a brand identity and a brand style that could extend into all of their ad content both online and in print. This included their logo, their social and web assets.
I chose an Explorer brand personality for their brand that went with their spirit of adventure and fun that would sit well on the high street or in a surf shop.
To complete their brief I had to create video for instagram, Web banners, a landing web page, posters for in store and bus shelters. Also an app that could be used for online purchases from initial browsing to check out, wire framed in Adobe UX.
Making the medium work
From OOH
To AHH!
To complete their brief I created a video for instagram, Web banners, a landing web page, posters for in store and bus shelters.
Also an app that could be used for online purchases from initial browsing to check out, wire framed in Adobe UX. All in all an exciting and interesting project.
the problem
This start up brand was faced with the perennial problem, how do you make an impression in an already crowded market place?
The strategy
The answer was in our audience. We targeted an online audience a cultured demographic who work and look for light entertainment for relief in their busy worlds. We looked to get the attention of a curious, non traditional, fun loving audience who are curious about wine.
The Image
From the get go the brand needed to be different from traditional wine and spirit outlets to gain visibility and to earn a place in the market. To create a new brand style we needed the brand to feel Australian, but to have a twist which would make it slightly whimsical and exotic, but not foreign.
The Impression
To create an impression, the overall design look is a mash up between Old Hollywood and classic Australiana. Like a mash up of Old school George Hamilton and Russel Crowe which sits perfectly with this brand and how it talks to its audience. Entertaining, bold and funny. So next time you are feeling a bit naughty you may think... Badboys.
You Need A Lot Of Creative Thinking When Your Brand Is
...a little bit Naughty!
Classical Styling
Vandoros
Vandoros is a brand that has really gone a long way in a short time, moving from a small warehouse to becoming the premier ribbon brand in Australia.
Their business had grown and had a solid foothold in the B2B market. However at the beginning of their journey into B2C recognition they needed to express their brand in a way that would gain them recognition without over simplifying or overstating their product.
Their customer base was split into gift wrapping and scrap booking. This was where their brand became unhinged. They were stuck in a creative “fork in the road” they didn’t know which way to turn. A move to far towards the gift wrapping and they feared they would lose their audience who loved their decorative qualities of their textured prints for their craft projects. The solution was to create images that gave an impression of perfectly hand crafted materials.
As a product that was used in wrapping they needed to show the tactile feature of the beautiful ribbons, and how a simple ribbon added to anything could have transformative qualities and how the simple act of adding a ribbon and paper had the ability to change a present into a gift. It’s all in the presentation.
These images were used for trade show banners, trade magazine ads, promotional flyers and web content. Their tactile quality and the visual unity became their trade signature that propelled their brand forward visually.
the problem
Vandoros is a brand that has really gone a long way in a short time. Within the space of five years they moved from a small warehouse to becoming the premier ribbon brand in Australia. The challenge they faced was balancing the history of the craft industry while maintaining a glamorous future style.
The strategy
The solution was to create a visual identity that would resonate both internally from this home grown business and would work as an external image that would suit their brand as they grew their brand in the market.The solution was to create a modern classic style that would become the North Star for the business as it grew.
The Image
The visual impression for this project would be to create a modern classic style. A style that carries with it the beauty of textured cloth and their tonal colours that adds glamour to every gift that is wrapped in. Also to create a beautiful look that would resonate also with their scrap book audience who purchase a lot of their product for personal projects.
The Impression
To achieve a strong image that would work on signage and editorial images for print we blended a style that contained classic European styling with a nod to modern Americana. This blending created an authentic style that left a lot of creative space for future ad designs.
Ad Development
the problem
Ogilvy Health expressed an interest to our collage for a pitch to see if any of the student groups could create a solution of how to solve a current pandemic that was destroying the fabric of our cities - loneliness. This problem has been growing in light of more lsolation amongst the older demographics and the general population as the population is becoming more transient as rents rise splitting communities and people are forced to seek cheaper accomodation.
The strategy
The solution was to use social media to create a grass roots movement that would resonate with both youth and the older demographics. The idea would be to use corporate organisations and Government to create social events where you could gain tickets cheaper or even free if you came together as a unit of three. As three is an odd number people would be inclined to join to other groups of three. The groups would be called We3.
The Image
The visual impression is one of heart and community. That can be used for signage and to create a modern classic style. I copied the style from East German Soviet Match box Designs from the Cold War Era from the early 1050's. The designs were interesting and full of hope and quirky European design from the era. These designs could easily be translated into posters and bus shelter designs.
The Impression
These retro style designs were out of the ordinary and different enough to be noticed by the urban youth and the older demographic who remembered the Cold war era. The intent was to create a grass roots movement that would spread near and wide amongst the local communities who would all come together to become one bring Sydney together again.
Corporate Identity
This image was designed to appeal to the corporate sector and to be used on Linkedin and other social media.
The human connection
This image was to be used on posters and T-shirts.
Togetherness.
This image was designed to be used in education and government to illustrate the idea that we all need not just to support the idea of the human connection but also we each need to take an active part in creating a better future for us all.
Pushing the envelope
Creating marketing images for exclusive brands is challenging. This exclusive brand of Scotch Whiskey that wanted to create a larger brand appeal without upsetting a very elite and established customer base.
The challenge with exclusive brands is they are only exclusive if they are out of reach from the popular market and you only achieve elite status if you are recognised by the elite. To achieve this elite status this brand were only selling their whiskey in vat lots. Which came at a very high price tag. However this was unsustainable if they were to grow.
the problem
So how do you increase sales without damaging the exclusivity of your brand?
The strategy
The solution was to make the offering for everyone who appreciates a fine Whiskey.
It will be available, but only at select fine whiskey establishments and to do short runs to maintain their elite status until they broaden their distribution network to became so popular they could maintain a credible market position with critical acclaim.
The Image
The visual impression for this project would be created from the Whiskey makers point of view. It would appear be a fine whiskey that had been hand crafted by an artisan, and was an offering made just for you.
The Impression
It is a drink for those that know and appreciate what goes into making finer things. This way all the heritage that went into the creation of such a fine Whiskey will always be appreciated, even though it is limited in its supply, and should be appreciated for this and respected just like a fine work of art.
